The Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Bill, passed by the Scottish Parliament on 21 March 2024, has now become the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 after receiving royal assent on 30th April.
A copy of the new Act can be found here.
The irony is not lost on me that all Bills, but this one in particular, still require royal assent before they become Acts. The idea that a grouse-moor-owning-crown-wearing-unelected bloke from the aristocracy, whose family influenced the popularity of driven grouse shooting many decades ago, is seen as the highest authority on whether grouse shooting should be licensed or not in response to ongoing, widespread criminality on, er, grouse moors, is laughable.
This particular grouse-moor-owning-crown-wearing-unelected bloke from the aristocracy needn’t worry too much about the effect of the new Act though. If you look at Part 3 31(1) of the Act you find this:
In other words, if Police Scotland have reason to suspect that a wildlife crime has been committed on one of the king’s private grouse moors (e.g. Delnadamph in the Cairngorms National Park) and they want to get a warrant to conduct a search of the estate for potential evidence, they can only exercise that warrant if they’ve been given prior consent by a person appointed by the king.
Genius. Can’t see any flaws in that whatsoever.
Now the Bill has become an Act, the final stage in this long, long process of licensing grouse shooting in Scotland in an attempt to stop the illegal persecution of birds of prey will be the development of the two Codes of Practice associated with the new Act, one for grouse moor management and one for muirburn. More details on the progress of those shortly…
Raptor Persecution UK 
Very pleased this is now on the books, l passionately hope that it either truly brings about decades of overdue changes in ‘sporting estate management’ …or puts them out of business if they won’t change. On snaring it is going to be weird to be knocking about thinking “‘there’s a midden in that wood” or “there always used to be snares behind that wall”.
Just to check – is it the case from now on that any snares in Scotland (including on Delnadamph!) are illegal and should be reported?
“Just to check – is it the case from now on that any snares in Scotland (including on Delnadamph!) are illegal and should be reported?”
Police Scotland say (https://www.scotland.police.uk/about-us/what-we-do/firearms-and-explosives-licensing/snares-and-weapon-transfers/ )
“Fox and rabbit control in Scotland is necessary…. Snaring is vital to achieve this in Scotland.Snaring is a lawful way of controlling foxes and rabbits providing they are constructed the right way.
They should also be set by authorised people in a correct way. This will reduce the chance that non target species are caught”
Whereas the Scottish Government website disagrees (https://www.gov.scot/news/wildlife-management-and-muirburn-bill-passed/#:~:text=The%20Wildlife%20Management%20and%20Muirburn,practice%20of%20snaring%20in%20Scotland )”The Wildlife Management and Muirburn Bill… bans the practice of snaring in Scotland”
From https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/legislation/bills/s6-bills/wildlife-management-and-muirburn-scotland-bill/stage-3/bill-as-passed.pdf“3A Prohibition of use of snares.”Section 3A covers two pages and is devoted to the mechanics of amending the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and is utterly meaningless without the wording of the 1981 Act in front of you (but there are many occurrences of the phrase ‘the words “or snare” are repealed’)This website goes on to state: “24A Review of operation and effectiveness(1) The Scottish Ministers must carry out a review of the operation and effectiveness of—…
(b) the prohibition of the use of snares under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981…Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill[AS PASSED]
An Act of the Scottish Parliament to make provision for the management of wildlife throughthe prohibition of glue traps and snares and regulation of other wildlife traps and the licensing of land on which certain birds are to be killed or taken; and for the licensing of the making ofmuirburn; and for connected purposes.”
So, I’d say that snaring is banned, without exception, but until someone(!) provides the exact new wording of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 as amended, I cannot be certain.And someone needs to tell Police Scotland!
The above words (mostly copied and pasted) are mine… but the poor formatting is the mischief of WordPress:-}
Although the Act has received royal assent, the provisions within the Act have not yet come into force and can only do so once enabling regulations are made (see section 35 of the Act). Therefore the law is currently unchanged on the use of snares in Scotland until such time that regulations are made.
“(see section 35 of the Act)”But there isn’t a section 35 in this: https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/legislation/bills/s6-bills/wildlife-management-and-muirburn-scotland-bill/stage-3/bill-as-passed.pdf
When a bill is passed subject to amendments then it needs to be corrected, referred to as “printing points”. This includes making formatting changes, correcting minor typographical errors, amending titles of Parts, Chapters, sections, etc.
Changes can only be made as printing points if they do not alter the legal effect of the Bill.
I would expect that this is why the final form of the legislation looks different to the Bill as passed.
“I would expect that this is why the final form of the legislation looks different to the Bill as passed.”This begs the question: where, then, is the ‘final form’ of this legislation so that members of the public can find the ‘mysterious’ section 35?
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2024/4/enacted
Aha! Not on the Scottish Government website. Thanks:-)
Section 35 of the Act says:
“35 Commencement
(1)This section and section 36 come into force on the day after Royal Assent.
(2)The other provisions of this Act come into force on such day as the Scottish Ministers may by regulations appoint.
(3)Regulations under subsection (2) may—
(a)include transitional, transitory or saving provision,
(b)make different provision for different purposes.
36 Short title
The short title of this Act is the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024.”Everything after this concerns a Schedule for local weights and measures officers, and their enforcement powers for the ban on the sale of glue traps.
I see no qualification, anywhere in the Act, on the commencement date for the ban on snares.
Of course, I still cannot reconcile it with the wording of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, but there is no amendment, as far as I can see, indicating any stay on the execution of a ban on snares.
Therefore, unless someone can point out what I am missing, I still think that the ban on snares “come into force on the day after Royal Assent.”
The Act doesn’t come into force, other than sections 35 and 36, until regulations are made bringing the other sections of the Act into force.
Well, thanks for that, but it seems a weird interpretation to me.
I assume, but cannot tell, that the code of practise for muirburn, for example, is considered a ‘regulation’? If that is so, it is expected be the last code of practise to be agreed, and may not happen before 2025.
Why on earth would lawyers *want* to hold up the ban on the deployment of snares for a code of practise on muirburn to be agreed, since their effects are not related to each other?
A code of practice is not a regulation. A regulation is a statutory instrument, a secondary piece of legislation. This has nothing to do with lawyers but the Scottish Government which is in control of bringing forward regulations.
I would recommend reading the guidance on the Scottish Parliament’s website to get an understanding of how bills become laws and secondary legislation: About Bills | Scottish Parliament Website.
Just an update that the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2024 comes into effect on 1 July 2024 and brings certain sections of the Act into force on 1 July and other sections into force on 22 July 2024.
difficult to see how this Act will prevent more ‘Merrick’ cases, other than, hopefully, bringing a total ban on driven grouse shooting a bit nearer.
“difficult to see how this Act will prevent more ‘Merrick’ cases”
Why do you say that? Do you not understand the difference between the criminal and civil burden of proof?
yes I do understand.
Whose licence to shoot grouse are you going to remove? Based on circumstantial evidence that an eagle was shot in a woodland near the A7 in the Scottish Borders. Careful now, wouldn’t want to libel anyone.
the point I’m trying to make is that there are those who would seek to get around the new Act and in doing so hasten the total demise of the sport/business/industry.
“Whose licence to shoot grouse are you going to remove? Based on circumstantial evidence that an eagle was shot in a woodland near the A7 in the Scottish Borders. Careful now, wouldn’t want to libel anyone.”
The Act is based on a balance of probabilities. What do you have against using ‘circumstantial evidence’?
“the point I’m trying to make is that there are those who would seek to get around the new Act and in doing so hasten the total demise of the sport/business/industry”
That is as may be… we have to just wait and see. If raptor persecution shows no sign of drastically reducing under the new Act the political pressure for an outright ban will increase.
But if raptor persecution does drastically reduce, then – just possibly – driven grouse shooting might begin to lose its financial appeal.